The International Air Transport Association has urged aviation regulators to take immediate action to assist civil aviation amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
The regulators were asked to ensure that civil aviation operations were seamless and safe, as well as to aid in the restart of aviation after containing the outbreak.
Reuters in a report on Tuesday quoted a statement from IATA as specifically urging the countries to partner the aviation industry to implement temporary measures, which would ensure that the licences and certificates for aviation safety are valid.
IATA’s Safety and Flight Operations Senior Vice-President Gilberto Meyer said, “Safety is always the top priority. We, therefore, commend the International Civil Aviation Organisation for their swift action to facilitate the sharing of states’ temporary regulatory extensions, making it easier for states to extend their mutual recognition.”
According to the global aviation body, many of the aviation regulators around the world are unable to carry out the standard administration of various licenses as the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the operations.
To avoid further disturbance to aviation, ICAO has introduced the COVID-19 Contingency Related Differences system.
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With this system, all states can identify any differences in their standard policies and mention that they accept the differences of another state using a new form.
It said the regulators should submit the temporary measures with the ICAO and identify the measures implemented by other states.
Currently, many aviation regulators have adopted measures to offer flexibility, ratings and certificates to airlines and licensed crew so that the operations can continue.
IATA stated that it was important that the measures should be filed with ICAO so that counterpart states could view and recognise the measures.
Last week, IATA released its latest estimates that indicated that the impact of COVID-19 on the aviation industry in the Asia-Pacific region had worsened.
Earlier this month, IATA released its updated analysis stating that global airline passenger revenues would decrease by $314bn this year, which marks a decline of 55 per cent compared to the previous year.
